1.
Andong Province
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Andong / Antung, or Liaodong was a former province in Northeast China, located in what is now part of Liaoning and Jilin provinces. It was bordered on the southeast by the Yalu River, which separated it from Korea, the name of the province Antung in Chinese means pacify the east and was likely inspired by the Protectorate General to Pacify the East established during the Tang Dynasty. Antung was further sub-divided in 1939 into Antung Province and Tonghua Province, after the annexation of Manchukuo by the Republic of China after the end of World War II, the Kuomintang reunited Antung and Tonghua, and continued to recognize the area as Antung Province. The capital of Antung Province from 1934-1939 was Tonghua, the area of the province was. List of administrative divisions of Manchukuo Map showing the location of Andong within the territories of the ROC map of the Andong Province of Manchukuo
2.
Manchuria
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Manchuria is a modern name, first created by the Japanese, given to a large geographic region in Northeast Asia. Depending on the context, Manchuria can either refer to a region that falls entirely within the Peoples Republic of China, the definition of Manchuria can be any one of several regions of various size. These are, from smallest to largest, Northeast China, consisting of Heilongjiang, Jilin and this is the area referred to as Manchuria in the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions. Inner Manchuria, the above, plus parts of modern Inner Mongolia, The above, plus Outer Manchuria, the area from the Amur and Ussuri rivers to the Stanovoy Mountains, in Russian administrative terms, Ussuri krai, southern Harbin oblast, Primorskiy kray. The above, plus Sakhalin Island, which is included on Qing dynasty maps as part of Outer Manchuria even though it is not explicitly mentioned in the Treaty of Nerchinsk. The island was included in Manchuria on maps made by the Japanese Shogunate. Despite of lines on maps and empiress political claims, the island was inhabited by Ainu people until the Soviet Union enforced a policy after 1945. Three centuries and a half must now pass away before entering upon the act of the Manchu drama. During the ensuing two hundred years the Nü-chêns were scarcely heard of, the House of Ming being busily occupied in other directions and it may be noted here that Manchuria is unknown to the Chinese or to the Manchus themselves as a geographical expression. The present extensive home of the Manchus is usually spoken of as the Three Eastern Provinces, namely, Shêngking, or Liao-tung, or Kuan-tung, Kirin, and Heilungchiang or Tsitsihar. — Herbert A. Giles, China and the Manchus,1912 Manchuria is a translation of the Japanese word Manshū, the Manchu and Chinese languages had no such word as Manchuria and the word has imperialist connotations. According to Bill Sewell, it was Europeans who first started using the name Manchuria to refer to the location, the historian Gavan McCormack agreed with Robert H. G. The Japanese had their own motive for deliberately spreading the usage of the term Manchuria, the historian Norman Smith wrote that The term Manchuria is controversial. Professor Mariko Asano Tamanoi said that she should use the term in quotation marks when referring to Manchuria, in his 2012 dissertation on the Jurchen people to obtain a Doctor of Philosophy degree in History from the University of Washington, Professor Chad D. In the 18th-century Europe, the later known as Manchuria was most commonly referred to as Tartary. However, the term Manchuria started appearing by the end of the century, in current Chinese parlance, an inhabitant of the Northeast, or Northeast China, is a Northeasterner. In China, the term Manchuria is rarely used today, and this usage is seen in the expression Chuǎng Guāndōng referring to the mass migration of Han Chinese to Manchuria in the 19th and 20th centuries. The name Guandong later came to be used more narrowly for the area of the Kwantung Leased Territory on the Liaodong Peninsula and it is not to be confused with the southern province of Guangdong
3.
Northeast China
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Northeast China or Dongbei is a geographical region of China. It also historically corresponds with the term Manchuria in the English language, the heartland of the region is the Northeast China Plain. Due to the shrinking of its industrial sector and decline of its economic growth. The region is congruent with some definitions of Manchuria in historical foreign usage. Another term for the area is Guandong, meaning east of the Pass, Northeast China was the homeland of several ethnic groups, including the Manchus, Ulchs, Hezhen. Various ethnic groups and their kingdoms, including the Sushen, Xianbei. Many Korean kingdoms have risen to power in Manchuria, including Gojoseon, Buyeo, Goguryeo. Yan State once occupied the Liaodong Peninsula, Han Chinese dynasties in China loosely controlled the southern parts of the region, during the Song dynasty, the Khitan set up the Liao Dynasty in Northeast China. Later, the Jurchen overthrew the Liao and formed the Jin dynasty, in AD1234, the Jin dynasty fell to the Mongols, whose Yuan Dynasty was later replaced by the Ming Dynasty in 1368. In 1644, the Manchu conquered the entirety of China and established the Qing dynasty, Northeast China came under influence of the Russian Empire with the building of the Chinese Eastern Railway through Harbin to Vladivostok. The Empire of Japan replaced Russian influence in the region as a result of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904–1905, during the Warlord Era in China, Zhang Zuolin established himself in Northeast China, but was murdered by the Japanese for being too independent. The last Qing dynasty emperor, Puyi, was placed on the throne to lead a Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. After the atomic bombing of Japan in 1945, the Soviet Union invaded the region as part of its declaration of war against Japan, from 1945 to 1948, Northeast China was a base area for the Communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. Northeast China has a population of about 107,400,000 people. The overwhelming majority of the population in the Northeast is Han Chinese, people from the Northeast would first identify themselves as Northeasterners before affiliating to individual provinces and cities/towns. The Northeast was one of the earliest regions to industrialize in China during the era of Manchukuo, after the founding of the Peoples Republic of China, Northeast China continued to be a major industrial base of the country. The region is, on the whole, more urbanised than most parts of China. Major cities include Shenyang, Dalian, Harbin, Changchun and Anshan, other cities include the steel making centres of Fushun and Anshan in Liaoning, Jilin City in Jilin, and Qiqihar and Mudanjiang in Heilongjiang
4.
Simplified Chinese characters
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Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters prescribed in the Table of General Standard Chinese Characters for use in mainland China. Along with traditional Chinese characters, it is one of the two character sets of the contemporary Chinese written language. The government of the Peoples Republic of China in mainland China has promoted them for use in printing since the 1950s and 1960s in an attempt to increase literacy and they are officially used in the Peoples Republic of China and Singapore. Traditional Chinese characters are used in Hong Kong, Macau. Overseas Chinese communities generally tend to use traditional characters, Simplified Chinese characters may be referred to by their official name above or colloquially. Strictly, the latter refers to simplifications of character structure or body, character forms that have existed for thousands of years alongside regular, Simplified character forms were created by decreasing the number of strokes and simplifying the forms of a sizable proportion of traditional Chinese characters. Some simplifications were based on popular cursive forms embodying graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms, some characters were simplified by applying regular rules, for example, by replacing all occurrences of a certain component with a simplified version of the component. Variant characters with the pronunciation and identical meaning were reduced to a single standardized character. Finally, many characters were left untouched by simplification, and are identical between the traditional and simplified Chinese orthographies. Some simplified characters are very dissimilar to and unpredictably different from traditional characters and this often leads opponents not well-versed in the method of simplification to conclude that the overall process of character simplification is also arbitrary. In reality, the methods and rules of simplification are few, on the other hand, proponents of simplification often flaunt a few choice simplified characters as ingenious inventions, when in fact these have existed for hundreds of years as ancient variants. However, the Chinese government never officially dropped its goal of further simplification in the future, in August 2009, the PRC began collecting public comments for a modified list of simplified characters. The new Table of General Standard Chinese Characters consisting of 8,105 characters was promulgated by the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China on June 5,2013, cursive written text almost always includes character simplification. Simplified forms used in print have always existed, they date back to as early as the Qin dynasty, One of the earliest proponents of character simplification was Lubi Kui, who proposed in 1909 that simplified characters should be used in education. In the years following the May Fourth Movement in 1919, many anti-imperialist Chinese intellectuals sought ways to modernise China, Traditional culture and values such as Confucianism were challenged. Soon, people in the Movement started to cite the traditional Chinese writing system as an obstacle in modernising China and it was suggested that the Chinese writing system should be either simplified or completely abolished. Fu Sinian, a leader of the May Fourth Movement, called Chinese characters the writing of ox-demons, lu Xun, a renowned Chinese author in the 20th century, stated that, If Chinese characters are not destroyed, then China will die. Recent commentators have claimed that Chinese characters were blamed for the problems in China during that time
5.
Traditional Chinese characters
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Traditional Chinese characters are Chinese characters in any character set that does not contain newly created characters or character substitutions performed after 1946. They are most commonly the characters in the character sets of Taiwan, of Hong Kong. Currently, a number of overseas Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between both sets. In contrast, simplified Chinese characters are used in mainland China, Singapore, the debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters has been a long-running issue among Chinese communities. Although simplified characters are taught and endorsed by the government of Mainland China, Traditional characters are used informally in regions in China primarily in handwriting and also used for inscriptions and religious text. They are often retained in logos or graphics to evoke yesteryear, nonetheless, the vast majority of media and communications in China is dominated by simplified characters. Taiwan has never adopted Simplified Chinese characters since it is ruled by the Republic of China, the use of simplified characters in official documents is even prohibited by the government in Taiwan. Simplified characters are not well understood in general, although some stroke simplifications that have incorporated into Simplified Chinese are in common use in handwriting. For example, while the name of Taiwan is written as 臺灣, similarly, in Hong Kong and Macau, Traditional Chinese has been the legal written form since colonial times. In recent years, because of the influx of mainland Chinese tourists, today, even government websites use simplified Chinese, as they answer to the Beijing government. This has led to concerns by residents to protect their local heritage. In Southeast Asia, the Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative regarding simplification, while major public universities are teaching simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications like the Chinese Commercial News, World News, and United Daily News still use traditional characters, on the other hand, the Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified. Aside from local newspapers, magazines from Hong Kong, such as the Yazhou Zhoukan, are found in some bookstores. In case of film or television subtitles on DVD, the Chinese dub that is used in Philippines is the same as the one used in Taiwan and this is because the DVDs belongs to DVD Region Code 3. Hence, most of the subtitles are in Traditional Characters, overseas Chinese in the United States have long used traditional characters. A major influx of Chinese immigrants to the United States occurred during the half of the 19th century. Therefore, the majority of Chinese language signage in the United States, including street signs, Traditional Chinese characters are called several different names within the Chinese-speaking world
6.
Pinyin
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Pinyin, or Hànyǔ Pīnyīn, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is often used to teach Standard Chinese, which is written using Chinese characters. The system includes four diacritics denoting tones, Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet, and also in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters. The pinyin system was developed in the 1950s by many linguists, including Zhou Youguang and it was published by the Chinese government in 1958 and revised several times. The International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as a standard in 1982. The system was adopted as the standard in Taiwan in 2009. The word Hànyǔ means the language of the Han people. In 1605, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci published Xizi Qiji in Beijing and this was the first book to use the Roman alphabet to write the Chinese language. Twenty years later, another Jesuit in China, Nicolas Trigault, neither book had much immediate impact on the way in which Chinese thought about their writing system, and the romanizations they described were intended more for Westerners than for the Chinese. One of the earliest Chinese thinkers to relate Western alphabets to Chinese was late Ming to early Qing Dynasty scholar-official, the first late Qing reformer to propose that China adopt a system of spelling was Song Shu. A student of the great scholars Yu Yue and Zhang Taiyan, Song had been to Japan and observed the effect of the kana syllabaries. This galvanized him into activity on a number of fronts, one of the most important being reform of the script, while Song did not himself actually create a system for spelling Sinitic languages, his discussion proved fertile and led to a proliferation of schemes for phonetic scripts. The Wade–Giles system was produced by Thomas Wade in 1859, and it was popular and used in English-language publications outside China until 1979. This Sin Wenz or New Writing was much more sophisticated than earlier alphabets. In 1940, several members attended a Border Region Sin Wenz Society convention. Mao Zedong and Zhu De, head of the army, both contributed their calligraphy for the masthead of the Sin Wenz Societys new journal. Outside the CCP, other prominent supporters included Sun Yat-sens son, Sun Fo, Cai Yuanpei, the countrys most prestigious educator, Tao Xingzhi, an educational reformer. Over thirty journals soon appeared written in Sin Wenz, plus large numbers of translations, biographies, some contemporary Chinese literature, and a spectrum of textbooks
7.
Peninsula
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A peninsula is a piece of land surrounded by water on the majority of its border, while being connected to a mainland from which it extends out. Examples include the upper and lower peninsulas of the state of Michigan, the surrounding water is usually understood to be continuous, though not necessarily named as a single body of water. Peninsulas are not always named as such, one can also be a headland, cape, island promontory, bill, point, a point is generally considered a tapering piece of land projecting into a body of water that is less prominent than a cape. A river which courses through a very tight meander is also said to form a peninsula within the loop of water. In English, the plural of peninsula is peninsulas or, less commonly, peninsulas can be found on coastlines and in smaller bodies of water throughout the world, ranging in scale from square meters to millions of square kilometers. Theres the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe, and in Southern Europe theres the Iberian Peninsula, the Italian Peninsula, south America has the Brunswick Peninsula, and Antarctica has the Antarctic Peninsula. In Africa, theres the Horn of Africa, and in Australia, asia has the 3 largest peninsulas in the world, the Arabian Peninsula, the Indian Peninsula, and the Indochinese Peninsula
8.
Liaoning
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Liaoning is a province of China, located in the northeast of the country. The modern province was established in 1907 as Fengtian or Fengtien province and it was also known as Mukden province at the time, for the Manchu pronunciation of Shengjing, the former name of the provincial capital Shenyang. Under the Japanese-puppet Manchukuo regime, the province reverted to its 1907 name but the name Liaoning was restored in 1945, Liaoning is the southernmost part of Manchuria, the Chinese Northeast. The Yalu River marks its border with North Korea, emptying into the Korea Bay between Dandong in Liaoning and Sinuiju in North Korea, the characters forming the provinces modern Chinese name are 辽 and 宁. They are the forms of the traditional characters 遼 and 寧. The first character literally means far, distant but is actually a reference to the Liao River which flows through the territory. The second literally means peace, calm but in such Chinese place names actually has the sense of pacified, made peaceful, here in reference to the turbulent situation of Manchuria in the late 1920s. In both English and Chinese, however, it is most common to gloss the name as the more literal Peace on the Liao, the provinces one-character abbreviation in Chinese is 辽. Liaoning is located in the part of Northeast China. In the past, it formed part of Korean kingdoms as Gojoseon, Goguryeo, and Balhae, as well as Chinese polities such as the Yan State and it was also inhabited by non-Han peoples such as Xiongnu, Donghu, Xianbei. In addition, the Khitan, Jurchen, Mongol Empire and Northern Yuan ruled Liaoning, the Ming Empire took control of Liaoning in 1371, just three years after the expulsion of the Mongols from Beijing. Around 1442, a wall was constructed to defend the agricultural heartland of the province from a potential threat from the Jurchen-Mongol Oriyanghan from the northwest. Between 1467 and 1468, the wall was expanded to protect the region from the northeast as well, although similar in purpose to the Great Wall of China, this Liaodong Wall was of a lower-cost design. While stones and tiles were used in parts, most of the wall was in fact simply an earth dike with moats on both sides. Despite the Liaodong Wall, the Manchus conquered Liaodong, or eastern Liaoning, in the early 17th century, decades before the rest of China fell to them. The Manchu dynasty, styled Later Jin, established its capital in 1616–1621 in Xingjing and it was moved to Dongjing, and finally in 1625 to Shengjing. Although the main Qing capital was moved from Shengjing to Beijing after it fell to the Qing in 1644, in the Governors words, Tieling and Fushun only have a few vagrants. West of the Liaohe, only Ningyuan, Jinzhou, and Guangning had any significant populations remaining, in the latter half of the seventeenth century, the imperial Qing government recruited migrants from south of the Great Wall to settle the relatively sparsely populated area of Fengtian Province
9.
Liao River
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The Liao River is the principal river in southern Northeast China, and one of the seven main river systems in mainland China. The province of Liaoning and the Liaodong Peninsula derive their names from this river, the river is also popularly known as the mother river in Northeast China. The Liao River has a high sediment load because many parts of it flow through powdery loess. The Liao River is also an important geographical landmark, as it divides the province of Liaoning into two broad regions — Liaodong and Liaoxi. The Liao River is formed from the confluence of its two tributaries, the Xiliao River from the west, and Dongliao River from the east. The resultant river, the Liao River proper, then enters Liaoning Province and courses southwards through the Northeast China Plain and it makes a westward turn near Pingdingbao Town, Tieling County, and after receiving more tributaries, earns an infrequently used nickname Juliu River. The eastern distributary, originally the one and the main body of lower Liao River, was called the Wailiao River. However, the Liao River Delta is has a flat topography made up of soft sediment soil and this coupled with the risk of storm surges due to the regions low elevation, created a huge problem in flood control. This flood risk at the section of the Liao River system was particularly threatening to Yingkou. Therefore, since 1958, the Hun River and Taizi River were no longer considered tributaries of the Liao River, but an autonomous water system of their own. Xiliao River, historically known as Huang River, is the largest tributary of Liao River, running 449 kilometres. The Xiliao River is formed by the confluence of Laoha River flowing from the southwest and its headwaters arise in the low mountains near Dongliao County in Jilin Province, where more than 80% of its entire length resides. The Dongliao River then traverses a short west course through Liaoning Province and these following tributaries drain into the Liao River proper throughout its course within the Liaoning Province. Running 415 kilometres and draining a basin of 11,500 square kilometres and it flows through the most populous area of Liaoning Province, including the provincial capital and largest city, Shenyang, as well as the 10th largest city, Fushun. The river got its current name from the fast flow speed and high sediment load, the rivers middle section was also called Shen River, which gave name to the capital city Shenyang to its north, and the lower section is also called Clam River. However in 1958, an engineering project was conducted to address flood control problem in the coastal area near Yingkou. Therefore since 1958, the Hun and Taizi River were considered an independent river system of their own and it was formally the third largest tributary of the Liao River, running 413 kilometres and draining a basin of 13,900 square kilometres. Like its sister river, the Hun River, the Taizi River has numerous tributaries and its headwaters arise from hill regions between Benxi and Fushun, and contains the famous Benxi Water Caves
10.
Yan (state)
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Yan was an ancient Chinese state during the Zhou dynasty. During the Warring States period, the court was moved to another capital at Xiadu at times. The history of Yan began in the Western Zhou in the early first millennium BC, after the authority of the Zhou king declined during the Spring and Autumn period in the 8th century BC, Yan survived and became one of the strongest states in China. Yan experienced a period of independence after the collapse of the Qin dynasty in 207 BC. In the 11th century BC, Yans capital was based in what is now Liulihe Township, Fangshan District, Beijing, in the 3rd century BCE, the Yellow River followed a more northerly course than the present day. It emptied into the Bohai Sea at a point south of Tianjin in what is now Hebei as opposed to its end in Shandong. Yan stretched from the Yellow River to the Yalu River and from the mountains of Shanxi to the Liaodong Peninsula, as the most northeastern of all the Chinese states during this time period, Yan faced incursions from steppe nomads and built great walls in southern Liaoning. To the south, the states of Zhao and Qi were Yans main rivals. The mountainous border in the west between Zhao and Yan became the area in which their armies often clashed, despite this, the war between Zhao and Yan usually dragged on into a stalemate, requiring the help of other kingdoms to conclude. In the late 4th century, General Qin Kai invaded and defeated Gojoseon, the strongest opposition came from the Qi, one of the strongest states in China. In 314 BCE, taking advantage of a crisis within Yan, Qi invaded. However, due to the misconduct of Qi troops during the conquest of Yan a revolt eventually drove them away, Yans new king, King Zhao of Yan then plotted with the states of Zhao, Qin, Han and Wei for a joint expedition against Qi. Led by the brilliant tactician Yue Yi, it was successful and within a year most of Qis seventy walled cities had fallen, with the exception of Zimu. However, with the death of King Zhao and the expulsion of Yue Yi to Zhao by the new king, King Wei of Yan, despite the wars, Yan survived through the Warring States period. In 227 BCE, with Qin troops on the border after the collapse of Zhao, Crown Prince Dan sent an assassin named Jing Ke to kill the king of Qin, the mission failed, with Jing Ke dying at the hands of the King of Qin in Xianyang. Surprised and enraged by such an act, the king of Qin called on Wang Jian to destroy Yan. Crushing the bulk of the Yan army at the frozen Yi River, Ji fell the following year, in 222 BCE, Liaodong fell as well, and Yan was totally conquered by Qin. Yan was the third last state to fall, and with its destruction the fates of the two kingdoms were sealed
11.
Warring States period
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The Warring States Period derives its name from the Record of the Warring States, a work compiled early in the Han dynasty. The political geography of the era was dominated by the Seven Warring States, namely, Qin, The State of Qin was in the far west, with its core in the Wei River Valley and Guanzhong. This geographical position offered protection from the states of the Central Plains, the Three Jins, Northeast of Qin, on the Shanxi plateau, were the three successor states of Jin. These were, Han, south, along the Yellow River, Zhao, the northernmost of the three. Qi, located in the east of China, centred on the Shandong Peninsula, described as east of Mount Tai, Chu, located in the south of China, with its core territory around the valleys of the Han River and, later, the Yangtze River. Yan, located in the northeast, centred on modern-day Beijing, late in the period Yan pushed northeast and began to occupy the Liaodong Peninsula Besides these seven major states, some minor states also survived into the period. Yue, On the southeast coast near Shanghai was the State of Yue, Sichuan, In the far southwest were the States of Ba and Shu. These were non-Zhou states that were conquered by Qin late in the period, in the Central Plains comprising much of modern-day Henan Province, many smaller city states survived as satellites of the larger states, though they were eventually to be absorbed as well. Zhongshan, Between the states of Zhao and Yan was the state of Zhongshan, the Spring and Autumn period was initiated by the eastward flight of the Zhou court. There is no one single incident or starting point for the Warring States era, some proposed starting points are as follows,481 BC, Proposed by Song-era historian Lü Zuqian, since it is the end of the Spring and Autumn Annals. 476–475 BC, The author, Sima Qian, of Records of the Grand Historian who chose the year of King Yuan of Zhou. 403 BC, The year when Han, Zhao and Wei were officially recognised as states by the Zhou court, author Sima Guang of Zizhi Tongjian tells us that the symbol of eroded Zhou authority should be taken as the start of the Warring States era. The Spring and Autumn period led to a few states gaining power at the expense of many others, during the Warring States period, many rulers claimed the Mandate of Heaven to justify their conquest of other states and spread their influence. Other major states also existed, such as Wu and Yue in the southeast, the last decades of the Spring and Autumn era were marked by increased stability, as the result of peace negotiations between Jin and Chu which established their respective spheres of influence. This situation ended with the partition of Jin, whereby the state was divided between the houses of Han, Zhao and Wei, and thus enabled the creation of the seven major warring states. This allowed other clans to gain fiefs and military authority, and decades of struggle led to the establishment of four major families. The Battle of Jinyang saw the allied Han, Zhao and Wei destroy the Zhi family, with this, they became the de facto rulers of most of Jins territory, though this situation would not be officially recognised until half a century later. The Jin division created a vacuum that enabled during the first 50 years expansion of Chu and Yue northward
12.
Yellow Sea
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The Yellow Sea is the name given to the northern part of the East China Sea, which is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean. It is located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula and its name comes from the sand particles from Gobi Desert sand storms that turn the surface of the water golden yellow. The innermost bay of the Yellow Sea is called the Bohai Sea, into it flow both the Yellow River and Hai He. Deposits of sand and silt from those rivers contribute to the sea colour, the northern extension of the Yellow Sea is called the Korea Bay. The Yellow Sea is one of four seas named after common colour terms — the others being the Black Sea, the Red Sea, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Yellow Sea as follows, On the South. The parallel of 33°17 North from Saisyu To to the mainland. The Yellow Sea, excluding the Bohai, extends by about 960 km from north to south and about 700 km from east to west, it has an area of about 380,000 km2 and the volume of about 17,000 km3. Its depth is only 44 m on average, with a maximum of 152 m, the sea is a flooded section of continental shelf that formed after the last ice age as sea levels rose 120 m to their current levels. The sea bottom is slowly rising toward China and more rapidly at the Korean Peninsula, the depth gradually increases from north to south. The sea bottom and shores are dominated by sand and silt brought by the rivers through the Bohai Sea and those deposits, together with sand storms are responsible for the yellow water color and the sea name. The area has cold, dry winters with strong northerly monsoons blowing from late November to March, average January temperatures are −10 °C in the north and 3 °C in the south. Summers are wet and warm with frequent typhoons between June and October, air temperatures range between 10 and 28 °C. The average annual precipitation increases from about 500 mm in the north to 1,000 mm in the south, fog is frequent along the coasts, especially in the upwelling cold-water areas. The sea has a warm cyclone current and it is a part of the Kuroshio Current, which diverges near the western part of Japan and flows northward into the Yellow Sea at the speed of below 0.8 km/h. Southward currents prevail near the sea coast, especially in the monsoon period. The water temperature is close to freezing in the part in winter, so drift ice patches and continuous ice fields form. The water temperature and salinity are homogeneous across the depth, the southern waters are warmer at 6–8 °C. In spring and summer, the layer is warmed up by the sun and diluted by the fresh water from rivers, while the deeper water remains cold
13.
Bohai Sea
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The Bohai Sea or Bo Sea, also known as Bohai Gulf or Bo Gulf, is the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea and Korea Bay on the coast of Northeastern and North China. It is approximately 78,000 km2 in area and its proximity to Beijing, until the early 20th century, Bo Hai was often called the Gulf of Chihli or the Gulf of Pechihli or Pechili. Zhili and Beizhili were historic provinces in the area surrounding Beijing, the Bohai Sea is bounded by the Changshan Islands chain between the Liaodong and Shandong Peninsulas. It has become one of busiest sea routes in recent times, there are three major bays inside the Bohai Sea, Laizhou Bay to the south, Liaodong Bay to the north, and Bohai Bay to the west. At the easternmost end of the Bohai Sea, between the southernmost end of the Liaodong Peninsula and northernmost end of the Shandong Peninsula, is the Bohai Strait, a few of the rivers entering the gulf include the Yellow, Hai, Liao, and Luan Rivers. There are a few important oil reserves in the vicinity of the gulf, important island groups or islands in the gulf include the Changshan Islands, Changxing Island, and Xizhong Island. The PRC provincial-level divisions that have a Bohai Sea coastline are, from the south, going clockwise, Shandong, Hebei, Tianjin, Hebei again, and Liaoning. The ports of Dalian and Yantai are also considered part of the Bohai rim. The Port of Longkou reached 70 million tons of cargo in 2013, the main field in the region is named Shengli and has been exploited since the 1960s. It is still producing about half a million barrels a day, production is dominated by Chinese majors but foreign companies are also present, like ConocoPhilips, Roc Oil, and others. The Gudao Field, located in the Zhanhua sedimentary basin, was discovered in 1968, based on gravity, the reservoir includes the Guantao and Minghuazhen geologic formations within the dome-like anticline. The Suizhong 36-1 Oil Field was discovered in 1987, and produces from Oligocene fluvial-deltaic, Oil spills have been reported frequently in this region, three spills occurred in a two-month timeframe in 2011. In February 2011, the PRC announced that it would build a road, when completed, the tunnel would be 106 kilometres long. This plan seems have been superseded as of July 2013, with a plan involving a 123-kilometre tunnel between Dalian, Liaoning and Yantai, Shandong. The overall concept had its origins in a 1994 plan, which had intended for completion by 2010 at a cost of $10 billion. Balhae, Korean kingdom named after Bohai Bijia Mountain Bohai Economic Rim Bastion Unep Reports – Regional Definition, Bohai Sea
14.
Korea Bay
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The Korea Bay, sometimes the West Korea Bay, is a northern extension of the Yellow Sea, between Liaoning Province of China and North Pyŏngan Province of North Korea. It is separated from the Bohai by the Liaodong Peninsula, with Dalian at its southernmost point, the Yalu River, which marks the border between China and North Korea, empties into the Korea Bay between Dandong and Sinŭiju. East Korea Bay Geography of China Geography of North Korea Korean Peninsula Ta-lien-wan
15.
Changbai Mountains
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The Changbai Mountain Range is a mountain range on the border between China and North Korea. It is also referred to as the Šanggiyan, Jangbaek, or Ohnan mountains, the range extends from the Northeast Chinese provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning to the North Korean provinces of Ryanggang and Chagang. Most peaks exceed 2,000 metres in height, with the highest mountain being Paektu Mountain. The range represents the mythical birthplace of Bukūri Yongšon, ancestor of Nurhaci and the Aisin Gioro imperial family, who were the founders of the Manchu state, the Chinese name literally means Perpetually-White Mountain Region. The mountains are the source of the Songhua, Tumen and Yalu Rivers, the Changbai Mountains are characterized by long and cold winters. Precipitation is low in the winter but higher in the summer, the vegetation of the mountain slopes is divided into several different zones. At the top, above 2000 metres, tundra predominates, from 1700 to 2000 metres, vegetation is dominated by mountain birch and larch. Below this zone, and down to 1100 metres, the dominant trees are spruce, fir, from 600 to 1100 metres, the landscape is dominated by mixed forest, consisting of Amur linden, Korean pine, maple, and elm. Further down, a hardwood forest is found, dominated by second-growth poplar. Longwanqun National Forest Park Baekdu Mountain Changbai Waterfall List of mountains in Korea Baekdu mountain at changbaimountain. com
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Qianshan National Park
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Qianshan National Park is a mountainous national park in Liaoning Province, China,17 km by road, south east of Anshan. The park is referred to as The Northeast Pearl, the name Qianshan literally means Thousand mountains. This is actually an abbreviation of the name, Thousand Lotus Flower Mountains. According to legend, a time ago the four corners of the sky collapsed. The Goddess Nüwa wanted to save the people living below so she patched up the sky with stones, one stone was accidentally dropped to the ground where is splashed, throwing the earth into thousands of peaks in the shape of a lotus blossom. The park area of 44 square kilometres, is filled with both Buddhist and Taoist temples, monasteries and nunneries, here is one of few locations where both religions are found sharing the same site. Among the peaks, a naturally wrought statue of the Buddha stands 70 meters high and it is claimed to be largest naturally occurring image of Maitreya Buddha in the world. The area has a history of religious worship dating back to the Tang dynasty of China. The site was enhanced during both Ming and Qing dynasties, the revolutions of the twentieth century saw the site abandoned and some buildings damaged. The park has since be restored and expanded with new Pagoda, at its highest point, Qianshan reaches an elevation of 708.3 metres. The park is wooded with 95% of the area covered by forests. Over ten thousand of the trees have been estimated to be older than 100 years in age. Rare flora and fauna are found here along with a number of plants used in traditional Chinese medicines. Over a hundred different species of birds can be observed in the including the rare black-headed stork. Motor cars are not allowed within the park, tourists must either walk or hire one of the electric carts. Many paved foot paths climb steeply up the hillsides through thick forest and these foot paths lead past stelae honouring the dead, small shrines, pagodas and temples. Three cable car routes connect to several of the parks scenic peaks, however, none of the cable cars go the whole way up, leaving visitors some climbing if they wish to attain the summit. Among Qianshans scenic spots is a new discovery – a mountain which has shaped by nature in such a way that it resembles the Maitreya Buddha
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Anshan
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Anshan is the third largest prefecture level city in Liaoning province, Peoples Republic of China. Situated in the area of the province, Anshan is about 92 kilometres south of Shenyang. Anshan is on the boundary between the Mountains of eastern Liaoning and the plains of the west, the prefecture has a population of 3,584,000 people and covers an area of about 9,252 km2. The distance from the east to the west of the prefecture is 133 km, the area contains the famous Qianshan National Park. Anshan is home to the Anshan Iron and Steel Group, one of the largest steel producers in China, Anshan is sister cities with Sheffield Anshan has a population of 3.65 million at the 2010 census. The built up area encompassing 4 Anshan urban districts and urban Liaoyang is home to more than 2.17 million inhabitants in 2010, the area of Anshan has been inhabited since prehistoric times. The area remained of little significance, a city in Liaodong province, overshadowed by neighbouring Liaoyang city. In 1587 Anshan was fortified by the Ming Dynasty to combat the power of the Manchu. The city was burnt down during the Boxer Rebellion, and was destroyed again in the Russo-Japanese War, as a result of this war, Japan had gained influence in Liaoning and was engaged in industrialising the region. Anshan lay beside the new South Manchuria Railway line that ran from the port of Dalian to the city of Shenyang. As a joint Sino-Japanese venture, Anshan Zhenzing Iron Ore Company Unlimited was started in Anshan in 1918, after the Mukden Incident in 1931, Japan occupied the northeast of China. The mills were turned into a Japanese owned monopoly, in 1933, the site was expanded to include steel production and the company was renamed Showa Steel Works. Anshan became part of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo, additional industries developed around the iron and steel mills. The city of Anshan grew significantly in size around this new industrial site, Anshan had become one of the largest producers of iron and steel in Asia if not the world. It was therefore of importance in the Pacific War, and was subject to constant attack by B-29 Superfortress strategic bombers of the USAAF. Japanese Army detached the 1st Chutai of 104th Sentai of the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force, to Anshan, at the end of the war, Soviet Red Army forces launched Operation August Storm, which captured Manchuria form the Japanese. The Soviets looted the ruins of Shōwa Steel Works for anything that could be back to the Soviet Union. With the defeat of Japan in 1945, Anshan was returned to China along with the rest of Chinese Manchuria, however, peace had not yet arrived
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Dalian
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Dalian is a major city and seaport in the south of Liaoning Province, China. It is the southernmost city of Northeast China and at the tip of the Liaodong Peninsula, Dalian is the provinces second largest city and has sub-provincial administrative status, only the provincial capital is larger. The Shandong Peninsula lies southwest across the Bohai Strait, Korea lies across the Yellow Sea to the east, today, a financial, shipping and logistics centre for Northeast Asia, Dalian has a significant history of being used by foreign powers for its ports. Dalian was previously known as both Dalniy and Dairen, however the city was better known as Port Arthur and Ryojun from the original Port Arthur, now the citys Lüshunkou district. In 2012, Dalian ranked 82nd in the Global City Competitiveness Index, in 2006, Dalian was named Chinas most livable city by China Daily. Modern Dalian originated from Qingniwa or Qingniwaqiao, a fishing village. Russia built a town for the Kwantung Leased Territory after assuming control in 1898. After the Russo-Japanese War, Japan occupied the Kwantung Leased Territory, English sources called the city Dairen in this period, from the Japanese. In 1981, the State Council again renamed the city, from Lüda to Dalian, in the Qin and Han periods, Chinese expanded their territories into northern Korea through the Dalian region, then under the jurisdiction of Liaodong county. During the Sixteen Kingdoms era, the kingdom of Goguryeo controlled this region, in the early Tang Dynasty, the Dalian region was part of Andong Prefecture in Jili state, during the Liao Dynasty, it was part of Dong Jing Tong Liaoyang county. Dalian was named Sanshan in the period of Wei Jin, San Shanpu in the Tang Dynasty, Sanshan Seaport in the Ming Dynasty, and Qingniwakou during the Qing Dynasty. In the 1880s, Jinzhou, the north of downtown within Dalian, now Jinzhou District, was a town and centre for political intrigue. The Qing government built bridges and heavily fortified the peninsula, mining camps on the northern coast of Dalian Bay became the small town of Qingniwa or Qingniwaqiao, near what became downtown Dalian. The British occupied Qingniwa in 1858, but it returned to Chinese control in the 1880s, Port Arthur at the peninsulas tip took its English name from Royal Navy Lieutenant William C. Arthur, but Chinese called it Lüshun, in April 1895, China conceded defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War, ceding Liaodong Peninsula, Taiwan and Penghu, and making many other concessions in the Treaty of Shimonoseki. For Russia the region of the peninsula was of particular interest as one of the few areas in the region that had the potential to develop ice-free ports. The Russians built a commercial port city, which they wanted to become the Paris of the Far East. Linked to the Trans-Siberian Railways branch line from Harbin, Dalniy became Russias primary port-city in Asia, Russia spent more than 10 million golden rubles building the new ice-free port city
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Gojoseon
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Gojoseon, originally named Joseon, was an ancient Korean kingdom. The addition of Go, meaning ancient, distinguishes it from the other kingdoms called Joseon. The founding legend of Gojoseon, which is recorded in the Samguk Yusa and other medieval Korean books, states that the country was established in 2333 BC by Dangun, said to be descended from heaven. While no evidence has found that supports whatever facts may lie beneath this. In the 12th century BC Gija, a prince from the Shang dynasty of China, however, due to the lack of archaeological evidence, its existence has been challenged since the 20th century, and today no longer forms the mainstream understanding of this period. The historical Gojoseon kingdom was first mentioned in Chinese records in the early 7th century BC. During its early phase, the capital of Gojoseon was located in Liaoning, around 400 BC, it was moved to Pyongyang, while in the south of the peninsula, in 108 BC, the Han dynasty of China invaded and conquered Wiman Joseon. The Han established four commanderies to administer the Gojoseon territory, the area was later conquered by Goguryeo in 313 AD. Their language was probably a predecessor of the equally prehistoric Buyeo languages, Dangun is the legendary founder of Korea. A similar account is found in Jewang Ungi, according to the legend, the Lord of Heaven, Hwanin had a son, Hwanung, who descended to Baekdu Mountain and founded the city of Shinsi. Then a bear and a tiger came to Hwanung and said that wanted to become people. Hwuanung said to them if they went in a cave and lived there for 100 days while only eating mugwort. However, about halfway through the 100 days the tiger gave up, on the other hand, the bear successfully restrained herself and became a beautiful woman called Ungnyeo. Hwanung later married Ugnyeo, and she gave birth to Dangun, while the Dangun story is considered to be a myth, it is believed it is a mythical synthesis of a series of historical events relating to the founding of Gojoseon. There are various theories on the origin of this myth, Lee K. B. believes Dangun-wanggeom was a title borne by successive leaders of Gojoseon. Dangun is said to have founded Gojoseon around 2333 BC, based on the descriptions of the Samgungnyusa, Jewang Ungi, Dongguk Tonggam, the date differs among historical sources, although all of them put it during the mythical Emperor Yaos reign. Samgungnyusa says Dangun ascended to the throne in the 50th year of the legendary Yaos reign, Annals of the King Sejong says the first year, and Dongguk Tonggam says the 25th year. Gija, a man from Shang China, allegedly fled to the Korean peninsula in 1122 BC during the fall of the Shang to the Zhou dynasty and founded Gija Joseon
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Han dynasty
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The Han dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms period. Spanning over four centuries, the Han period is considered an age in Chinese history. To this day, Chinas majority ethnic group refers to itself as the Han people and it was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han, and briefly interrupted by the Xin dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang. This interregnum separates the Han dynasty into two periods, the Western Han or Former Han and the Eastern Han or Later Han, the emperor was at the pinnacle of Han society. He presided over the Han government but shared power with both the nobility and appointed ministers who came largely from the gentry class. The Han Empire was divided into areas controlled by the central government using an innovation inherited from the Qin known as commanderies. These kingdoms gradually lost all vestiges of their independence, particularly following the Rebellion of the Seven States, from the reign of Emperor Wu onward, the Chinese court officially sponsored Confucianism in education and court politics, synthesized with the cosmology of later scholars such as Dong Zhongshu. This policy endured until the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911 AD, the Han dynasty was an age of economic prosperity and saw a significant growth of the money economy first established during the Zhou dynasty. The coinage issued by the government mint in 119 BC remained the standard coinage of China until the Tang dynasty. The period saw a number of limited institutional innovations, the Xiongnu, a nomadic steppe confederation, defeated the Han in 200 BC and forced the Han to submit as a de facto inferior partner, but continued their raids on the Han borders. Emperor Wu of Han launched several campaigns against them. The ultimate Han victory in these wars eventually forced the Xiongnu to accept vassal status as Han tributaries, the territories north of Hans borders were quickly overrun by the nomadic Xianbei confederation. Imperial authority was seriously challenged by large Daoist religious societies which instigated the Yellow Turban Rebellion. When Cao Pi, King of Wei, usurped the throne from Emperor Xian, following Liu Bangs victory in the Chu–Han Contention, the resulting Han dynasty was named after the Hanzhong fief. Chinas first imperial dynasty was the Qin dynasty, the Qin unified the Chinese Warring States by conquest, but their empire became unstable after the death of the first emperor Qin Shi Huangdi. Within four years, the authority had collapsed in the face of rebellion. Although Xiang Yu proved to be a commander, Liu Bang defeated him at Battle of Gaixia. Liu Bang assumed the title emperor at the urging of his followers and is known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu, Changan was chosen as the new capital of the reunified empire under Han
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Cao Wei
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Cao Wei was one of the three major states that competed for supremacy over China in the Three Kingdoms period. With its capital at Luoyang, the state was established by Cao Pi in 220, based upon the foundations laid by his father, Cao Cao, towards the end of the Eastern Han dynasty. Historians often add the prefix Cao to distinguish it from other Chinese states known as Wei, such as Wei of the Warring States period and Northern Wei of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. The authority of the ruling Cao family gradually weakened after the death of the second Wei emperor, Cao Rui, and eventually fell into the hands of Sima Yi, a Wei regent, and his family, in 249. Towards the end of the Eastern Han dynasty, northern China came under the control of Cao Cao, in 213, Emperor Xian granted Cao Cao the title of Duke of Wei and gave him ten cities as his dukedom. At that time, the part of China was divided into two areas controlled by two other warlords, Liu Bei and Sun Quan. In 216, Emperor Xian promoted Cao Cao to the status of a vassal king — King of Wei —, Cao Cao died on 15 March 220 and his vassal king title was inherited by his son Cao Pi. Later that year, on 11 December, Cao Pi forced Emperor Xian to abdicate in his favour and took over the throne, however, Liu Bei immediately contested Cao Pis claim to the Han throne and declared himself Emperor of Shu Han a year later. Sun Quan was nominally a vassal king under Wei, but he declared independence in 222, Cao Pi ruled for six years until his death in 226 and was succeeded by his son, Cao Rui, who ruled until his death in 239. Throughout the reigns of Cao Pi and Cao Rui, Wei had been fighting numerous wars with its two rival states — Shu and Wu. The Shu invasions were repelled by the Wei armies led by the generals Cao Zhen, Sima Yi, Zhang He and others, Shu did not make any significant gains in the expeditions. On its southern and eastern borders, Wei engaged Wu in a series of armed conflicts throughout the 220s and 230s, including the battles of Dongkou, however, most of the battles resulted in stalemate and neither side managed to significantly expand its territory. Around that time, as the Korean kingdom Goguryeo consolidated its power, Goguryeo initiated the Goguryeo–Wei Wars in 242, trying to cut off Chinese access to its territories in Korea by attempting to take a Chinese fort. However, Wei responded by invading and defeated Goguryeo, hwando was destroyed in revenge by Wei forces in 244. In 249, during the reign of Cao Ruis successor, Cao Fang and this event marked the collapse of imperial authority in Wei, as Cao Fangs role had been reduced to a puppet ruler while Sima Yi wielded state power firmly in his hands. Sima Yi died in 251 and passed on his authority to his eldest son, Sima Shi, Sima Shi deposed Cao Fang in 254 and replaced him with Cao Mao. After Sima Shi died in the year, his younger brother, Sima Zhao, inherited his power. In 260, Cao Mao attempted to back state power from Sima Zhao in a coup
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Former Qin
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The Former Qin was a state of the Sixteen Kingdoms in China. Founded by an officer in Shi Les dynasty, it completed the unification of North China in 376 and its capital was Xian up to the death of the ruler Fu Jiān in 385. Despite its name, the Former Qin was much later and less powerful than the Qin Dynasty which had ruled all of China during the 3rd century BC, the adjective former is used to distinguish it from the Later Qin state. The severe defeat of the Former Qin in the Battle of Fei River in 383 encouraged uprisings, one fragment, at present-day Taiyuan, Shanxi was soon overwhelmed in 386 by the Xianbei under the Later Yan and the Dingling. The other struggled in greatly reduced territories around the border of present-day Shaanxi and Gansu until disintegration in 394 following years of invasions by Western Qin, in 327, the Gaochang commandery was created by the Former Liang under the Han Chinese ruler Zhang Gui. After this, significant Han Chinese settlement occurred, meaning that a part of the population becoming Chinese. In 383, the General Lu Guang of Former Qin seized control of the region, all rulers of Former Qin proclaimed themselves Emperor, except for Fu Jiān who claimed the title Heavenly Prince but was posthumoustly considered an emperor. ¹ Fu Sheng was posthumously given the title even though he had reigned as emperor. Chinese history Chinese sovereign Di Fu Jian Wang Meng Battle of Fei River
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Goguryeo
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Goguryeo was an active participant in the power struggle for control of the Korean peninsula and was also associated with the foreign affairs of neighboring polities in China and Japan. The Samguk Sagi, a 12th-century text from Goryeo, indicates that Goguryeo was founded in 37 BCE by Jumong, a prince from Buyeo, after its fall, its territory was divided among the states of Later Silla, Balhae and Tang China. The name Goryeo, a form of Goguryeo, was adopted as the official name in the 5th century. In the geographic monographs of the Book of Han, the word Goguryeo was first mentioned in 113 BCE as a region under the jurisdiction of the Xuantu Commandery, page 33. In the Old Book of Tang, it is recorded that Emperor Taizong refers to Goguryeos history as being some 900 years old, in 75 BCE, a group of Yemaek who may have originated from Goguryeo made an incursion into Chinas Xuantu Commandery west of the Yalu. At its founding, the Goguryeo people are believed to be a blend of people from Buyeo and Yemaek, as leadership from Buyeo may have fled their kingdom and integrated with existing Yemaek chiefdoms. The Records of the Three Kingdoms, in the section titled Accounts of the Eastern Barbarians, implied that Buyeo, the earliest mention of Jumong is in the 4th century Gwanggaeto Stele. Jumong is the modern Korean transcription of the hanja 朱蒙 Jumong, 鄒牟 Chumo, the Stele states that Jumong was the first king and ancestor of Goguryeo and that he was the son of the prince of Buyeo and daughter of the Yellow River deity Habaek. The Samguk Sagi and Samgungnyusa paint additional detail and names Jumongs mother as Yuhwa, Jumongs biological father was said to be a man named Haemosu who is described as a strong man and a heavenly prince. The river god chased Yuhwa away to the Ubal River due to her pregnancy, Jumong was well known for his exceptional archery skills. Eventually, Geumwas sons became jealous of him, and Jumong was forced to leave Eastern Buyeo, the Stele and later Korean sources disagree as to which Buyeo Jumong came from. The Stele says he came from Buyeo and the Samgungnyusa and Samguk Sagi say he came from Eastern Buyeo, Jumong eventually made it to Jolbon, where he married Soseono, daughter of its ruler. He subsequently became king himself, founding Goguryeo with a group of his followers from his native country. A traditional account from the Annals of Baekje section in the Samguk Sagi says that Soseono was the daughter of Yeon Tabal, a wealthy influential figure in Jolbon and married to Jumong. However, the same source states that the king of Jolbon gave his daughter to Jumong. She gave her husband, Jumong, financial support in founding the new statelet, Jumongs given surname was Hae, the name of the Buyeo rulers. According to the Samgungnyusa, Jumong changed his surname to Go in conscious reflection of his divine parentage, Jumong is recorded to have conquered the tribal states of Biryu in 36 BCE, Haeng-in in 33 BCE, and Northern Okjeo in 28 BCE. Goguryeo developed from a league of various Yemaek tribes to an early state, in the time of Taejodae in 53 CE, five local tribes were reorganized into five centrally ruled districts
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Tang dynasty
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The Tang dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. It is generally regarded as a point in Chinese civilization. Its territory, acquired through the campaigns of its early rulers, rivaled that of the Han dynasty. The dynasty was founded by the Lǐ family, who seized power during the decline, the dynasty was briefly interrupted when Empress Wu Zetian seized the throne, proclaiming the Second Zhou dynasty and becoming the only Chinese empress regnant. In two censuses of the 7th and 8th centuries, the Tang records estimated the population by number of registered households at about 50 million people. Various kingdoms and states paid tribute to the Tang court, while the Tang also conquered or subdued several regions which it controlled through a protectorate system. Besides political hegemony, the Tang also exerted a powerful influence over neighboring states such as those in Korea, Japan. Like the previous Sui dynasty, the Tang dynasty maintained a service system by recruiting scholar-officials through standardized examinations and recommendations to office. This civil order was undermined by the rise of military governors known as jiedushi during the 9th century. Chinese culture flourished and further matured during the Tang era, it is considered the greatest age for Chinese poetry. Two of Chinas most famous poets, Li Bai and Du Fu, belonged to this age, as did many famous painters such as Han Gan, Zhang Xuan, there was a rich variety of historical literature compiled by scholars, as well as encyclopedias and geographical works. The adoption of the title Tängri Qaghan by the Tang Emperor Taizong in addition to his title as emperor was eastern Asias first simultaneous kingship, there were many notable innovations during the Tang, including the development of woodblock printing. Buddhism became an influence in Chinese culture, with native Chinese sects gaining prominence. However, Buddhism would later be persecuted by the state, subsequently declining in influence, although the dynasty and central government were in decline by the 9th century, art and culture continued to flourish. This family was known as the Longxi Li lineage, which includes the Tang poet Li Bai, the Tang Emperors also had Xianbei maternal ancestry, from Emperor Gaozu of Tangs Xianbei mother Duchess Dugu. He had prestige and military experience, and was a first cousin of Emperor Yang of Sui, Li Yuan rose in rebellion in 617, along with his son and his equally militant daughter Princess Pingyang, who raised and commanded her own troops. In winter 617, Li Yuan occupied Changan, relegated Emperor Yang to the position of Taishang Huang or retired emperor, and acted as regent to the puppet child-emperor, Emperor Gong of Sui. On the news of Emperor Yangs murder by General Yuwen Huaji on June 18,618, Li Yuan declared himself the emperor of a new dynasty, the Tang
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Balhae
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Balhae, called Bóhǎi in Chinese, was a kingdom in present-day northern Korea, areas of Chinas Northeast, and Russias Maritime Province. Balhae was established under the name Jin by former Goguryeo general Dae Jo-yeong in 698 after his defeat of the Tang China at Tianmenling, Balhaes original capital was at Dongmo Mountain in modern Dunhua, Jilin Province. In 742 it was moved to the Central Capital in Helong and it was moved to the Northern Capital in Ningan, Heilongjiang in 755, to the Eastern Capital in Hunchun, Jilin in 785, and back to the Northern Capital in 794. According to a Chinese source, the kingdom had 100,000 households, archaeological evidence suggests that the Balhae culture was an amalgamation of Chinese, Korean, and indigenous cultures. Korean scholars consider Balhae as the part of the North–South States Period of Korean history, Balhae was founded in 698 under the name Jin or Zhen. Jin is the modern Revised Romanization of Korean 진, the same as the earlier Jin state, the former states character referred to the 5th earthly branch of the Chinese and Korean zodiacs, a division of the orbit of Jupiter identified with the dragon. This was associated with a bearing of 120° but also with the period between 7 and 9 am, leading it to be associated with dawn and the direction east. The latter states name may have simply been a variant transcription of this or may have intended the characters meaning of thunderclap, shock, tremor. In 713, the Tang dynasty bestowed the title Head of Bohai Commandery to the ruler of Jin, in 762 the Tang dynasty of China recognized it a kingdom and renamed it Bohai. The earliest extant recorded mention of Balhae comes from the Old Book of Tang, southern Manchuria and northern Korea were previously the territory of Goguryeo, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea. Goguryeo fell to the forces of Silla and the Tang dynasty in 668. The Tang annexed much of western Manchuria, while Silla unified the Korean peninsula south of the Taedong River, after Dae Jungsang’s death, his son, Dae Jo-yeong, a former Goguryeo general succeeded his father. Geolsa Biu died in battle against the Tang army led by the general Li Kaigu, Dae jo Yeong managed to escape outside of the Tang controlled territory with the remaining Goguryeo and Mohe soldiers. He successfully defeated an army sent by Wu Zetian at the Battle of Tianmenling. Which enabled him to establish the state of Balhae in the region of Yilou as King Go. The second King Mu, who felt encircled by Tang, Silla and Black Water Mohe along the Amur River, attacked Tang with his navy in 732 and killed a Tang prefect based on the Shandong Peninsula. In the same time, the king led troops taking land routes to Madushan in the vincity of the Shanhai Pass and he also sent a mission to Japan in 728 to threaten Silla from the southeast. Balhae kept diplomatic and commercial contacts with Japan until the end of the kingdom, Balhae dispatched envoys to Japan 34 times, while Japan sent envoys to Balhae 13 times
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Liao dynasty
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The Liao dynasty was founded by Abaoji, Khagan of the Khitan people around the time of the collapse of Tang China. It was the first state to all of Manchuria. Almost immediately after its founding, the Liao dynasty began a process of territorial expansion, tension between traditional Khitan social and political practices and Chinese influence and customs was a defining feature of the dynasty. So different were Khitan and Chinese practices that Abaoji set up two parallel governments, Khitan women were taught to hunt, managed family property, and held military posts. Many marriages were not arranged, women were not required to be virgins at their first marriage, the Liao dynasty was destroyed by the Jurchen people of the Jin dynasty in 1125 with the capture of Emperor Tianzuo of Liao. However, the remnant Khitan, led by Yelü Dashi, established the Qara Khitai, the Liao dynasty was officially known as the Khitan（now known as Cathay） or Khitan state in 916. The name Great Liao began to appear as the name between 936 and 947. The dynasty name Liao means iron, but it refers to the Liao River in southern Manchuria. Since 983 the state became known as the Khitan, but Great Liao reappeared as the country name in 1066. Neither the origins, ethnic makeup, nor early history of the Khitans are well documented in historical records, the earliest reference to a Khitan state is found in the Book of Wei, a history of the Northern Wei Dynasty that was completed in 554. Several books written after 554 mention the Khitans as being active during the late third, the Book of Jin, a history of the Jin dynasty, refers to the Khitans in the section covering the reign of Murong Sheng. Samguk Sagi, a history of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, Twitchett and Klaus-Peter Tietze, it is generally held that the Khitans emerged from the Yuwen branch of the Xianbei people. Following a defeat at the hands of another branch of the Xianbei in 345, in 388 the Kumo Xi itself split, with one group remaining under the name Kumo Xi and the other group becoming the Khitans. This view is backed up by the Book of Wei. There are also several competing theories on the origin of the Khitans, beginning in the Song dynasty, some Chinese scholars suggested that the Khitans might have descended from the Xiongnu people. While modern historians have rejected the idea that the Khitan were solely Xiongnu in origin, there is support for the claim that they are of mixed Xianbei. By the time the Book of Wei was written in 554, the Khitans suffered a series of military defeats to other nomadic groups in the region, as well as to the Chinese Northern Qi and Sui Dynasties. Khitan tribes at various times fell under the influence of Turkic tribes such as the Uighurs and Chinese dynasties such as the Sui and this influence would significantly shape Khitan language and culture
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Yuan dynasty
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The Yuan dynasty, officially the Great Yuan, was the empire or ruling dynasty of China established by Kublai Khan, leader of the Mongolian Borjigin clan. His realm was, by point, isolated from the other khanates and controlled most of present-day China and its surrounding areas. Some of the Mongolian Emperors of the Yuan mastered the Chinese language, while others used their native language. The Yuan dynasty is considered both a successor to the Mongol Empire and an imperial Chinese dynasty and it was the khanate ruled by the successors of Möngke Khan after the division of the Mongol Empire. In official Chinese histories, the Yuan dynasty bore the Mandate of Heaven, following the Song dynasty, the dynasty was established by Kublai Khan, yet he placed his grandfather Genghis Khan on the imperial records as the official founder of the dynasty as Taizu. In addition to Emperor of China, Kublai Khan also claimed the title of Great Khan, supreme over the other khanates, the Chagatai, the Golden Horde. As such, the Yuan was also referred to as the Empire of the Great Khan. However, while the claim of supremacy by the Yuan emperors was at times recognized by the khans, their subservience was nominal. In 1271, Kublai Khan imposed the name Great Yuan, establishing the Yuan dynasty, dà Yuán is from the clause 大哉乾元 in the Commentaries on the Classic of Changes section regarding Qián. The counterpart in Mongolian language was Dai Ön Ulus, also rendered as Ikh Yuan Üls or Yekhe Yuan Ulus, in Mongolian, Dai Ön is often used in conjunction with the Yeke Mongghul Ulus, resulting in Dai Ön Yeke Mongghul Ulus, meaning Great Mongol State. Nevertheless, both terms can refer to the khanate within the Mongol Empire directly ruled by Great Khans before the actual establishment of the Yuan dynasty by Kublai Khan in 1271. Genghis Khan united the Mongol and Turkic tribes of the steppes and he and his successors expanded the Mongol empire across Asia. Under the reign of Genghis third son, Ögedei Khan, the Mongols destroyed the weakened Jin dynasty in 1234, Ögedei offered his nephew Kublai a position in Xingzhou, Hebei. Kublai was unable to read Chinese but had several Han Chinese teachers attached to him since his early years by his mother Sorghaghtani and he sought the counsel of Chinese Buddhist and Confucian advisers. Möngke Khan succeeded Ögedeis son, Güyük, as Great Khan in 1251 and he granted his brother Kublai control over Mongol held territories in China. Kublai built schools for Confucian scholars, issued paper money, revived Chinese rituals and he adopted as his capital city Kaiping in Inner Mongolia, later renamed Shangdu. Many Han Chinese and Khitan defected to the Mongols to fight against the Jin, two Han Chinese leaders, Shi Tianze, Liu Heima, and the Khitan Xiao Zhala defected and commanded the 3 Tumens in the Mongol army. Liu Heima and Shi Tianze served Ogödei Khan, Liu Heima and Shi Tianxiang led armies against Western Xia for the Mongols
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Ming dynasty
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The Ming dynasty was the ruling dynasty of China – then known as the Empire of the Great Ming – for 276 years following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming, described by some as one of the greatest eras of orderly government, although the primary capital of Beijing fell in 1644 to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng, regimes loyal to the Ming throne – collectively called the Southern Ming – survived until 1683. He rewarded his supporters and employed them as a counterweight against the Confucian scholar-bureaucrats. One, Zheng He, led seven enormous voyages of exploration into the Indian Ocean as far as Arabia, the rise of new emperors and new factions diminished such extravagances, the capture of the Zhengtong Emperor during the 1449 Tumu Crisis ended them completely. The imperial navy was allowed to fall into disrepair while forced labor constructed the Liaodong palisade, haijin laws intended to protect the coasts from Japanese pirates instead turned many into smugglers and pirates themselves. The growth of Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch trade created new demand for Chinese products and produced an influx of Japanese. This abundance of specie remonetized the Ming economy, whose money had suffered repeated hyperinflation and was no longer trusted. While traditional Confucians opposed such a prominent role for commerce and the newly rich it created, combined with crop failure, floods, and epidemic, the dynasty collapsed before the rebel leader Li Zicheng, who was defeated by the Manchu-led Eight Banner armies who founded the Qing dynasty. The Mongol-led Yuan dynasty ruled before the establishment of the Ming dynasty, consequently, agriculture and the economy were in shambles, and rebellion broke out among the hundreds of thousands of peasants called upon to work on repairing the dykes of the Yellow River. A number of Han Chinese groups revolted, including the Red Turbans in 1351, the Red Turbans were affiliated with the White Lotus, a Buddhist secret society. Zhu Yuanzhang was a peasant and Buddhist monk who joined the Red Turbans in 1352. In 1356, Zhus rebel force captured the city of Nanjing, with the Yuan dynasty crumbling, competing rebel groups began fighting for control of the country and thus the right to establish a new dynasty. In 1363, Zhu Yuanzhang eliminated his archrival and leader of the rebel Han faction, Chen Youliang, in the Battle of Lake Poyang, arguably the largest naval battle in history. Known for its ambitious use of ships, Zhus force of 200,000 Ming sailors were able to defeat a Han rebel force over triple their size, claimed to be 650. The victory destroyed the last opposing rebel faction, leaving Zhu Yuanzhang in uncontested control of the bountiful Yangtze River Valley, Zhu Yuanzhang took Hongwu, or Vastly Martial, as his era name. Hongwu made an effort to rebuild state infrastructure. He built a 48 km long wall around Nanjing, as well as new palaces, Hongwu organized a military system known as the weisuo, which was similar to the fubing system of the Tang dynasty. With a growing suspicion of his ministers and subjects, Hongwu established the Jinyiwei, some 100,000 people were executed in a series of purges during his rule
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Qing dynasty
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It was preceded by the Ming dynasty and succeeded by the Republic of China. The Qing multi-cultural empire lasted almost three centuries and formed the base for the modern Chinese state. The dynasty was founded by the Jurchen Aisin Gioro clan in Manchuria, in the late sixteenth century, Nurhaci, originally a Ming vassal, began organizing Banners, military-social units that included Jurchen, Han Chinese, and Mongol elements. Nurhaci formed the Jurchen clans into an entity, which he renamed as the Manchus. By 1636, his son Hong Taiji began driving Ming forces out of Liaodong and declared a new dynasty, in 1644, peasant rebels led by Li Zicheng conquered the Ming capital, Beijing. The Ten Great Campaigns of the Qianlong Emperor from the 1750s to the 1790s extended Qing control into Central Asia, the early rulers maintained their Manchu ways, and while their title was Emperor, they used khan to the Mongols and they were patrons of Tibetan Buddhism. They governed using Confucian styles and institutions of government and retained the imperial examinations to recruit Han Chinese to work under or in parallel with Manchus. They also adapted the ideals of the system in dealing with neighboring territories. The Qianlong reign saw the apogee and initial decline in prosperity. The population rose to some 400 million, but taxes and government revenues were fixed at a low rate, corruption set in, rebels tested government legitimacy, and ruling elites did not change their mindsets in the face of changes in the world system. Following the Opium War, European powers imposed unequal treaties, free trade, the Taiping Rebellion and the Dungan Revolt in Central Asia led to the deaths of some 20 million people, most of them due to famines caused by war. In spite of disasters, in the Tongzhi Restoration of the 1860s, Han Chinese elites rallied to the defense of the Confucian order. The initial gains in the Self-Strengthening Movement were destroyed in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1895, in which the Qing lost its influence over Korea, New Armies were organized, but the ambitious Hundred Days Reform of 1898 was turned back by Empress Dowager Cixi, a conservative leader. Sun Yat-sen and other revolutionaries competed with reformist monarchists such as Kang Youwei, after the deaths of Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor in 1908, the hardline Manchu court alienated reformers and local elites alike. The Wuchang Uprising on October 11,1911, led to the Xinhai Revolution, General Yuan Shikai negotiated the abdication of Puyi, the last emperor, on February 12,1912. Nurhaci declared himself the Bright Khan of the Later Jin state in both of the 12–13th century Jurchen Jin dynasty and of his Aisin Gioro clan. His son Hong Taiji renamed the dynasty Great Qing in 1636, there are competing explanations on the meaning of Qīng. The character Qīng is composed of water and azure, both associated with the water element and this association would justify the Qing conquest as defeat of fire by water
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Xianbei
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The Xianbei were proto-Mongols residing in what became todays eastern Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Northeast China. Along with the Xiongnu, they were one of the nomadic groups in northern China during the Han Dynasty. They eventually established their own dynasties, including the Northern Wei founded in the 4th century AD by the Tuoba clan. It is generally accepted that the Xianbei spoke a related to the Mongolic languages. Claus Schönig writes, The Xianbei derived from the context of the Donghu, Later branches and descendants of the Xianbei include the Tabghach and Khitan, who seem to have been linguistically Para-Mongolic. Opinions differ widely as to what the impact of the Xianbei period was. Chinese historical texts unequivocally state that the Xianbei were descendants of the Donghu, the Xianbei were a northern or northeastern Asian population according to modern Chinese and Russian anthropologists. After the Donghu were defeated by Modu Chanyu around 208 BCE, the Book of the Later Han says that “the language and culture of the Xianbei are the same as the Wuhuan”. The Records of the Three Kingdoms say, Tanshihuai of the Xianbei divided his territory into three sections, the eastern, the middle and the western, from the You Beiping to the Liao River, connecting the Fuyu and Mo to the east, it was the eastern section. There were more than twenty counties, the darens were called Mijia, Queji, Suli and Huaitou. From the You Beiping to Shanggu to the west, it was the middle section, there were more than ten counties. The darens of this section were called Kezui, Queju, Murong, from Shanggu to Dunhuang, connecting the Wusun to the west, it was the western section. There were more than twenty counties, the darens were called Zhijian Luoluo, Rilü Tuiyan, Yanliyou, et al. These chiefs were all subordinate to Tanshihuai, … Refined metals and wrought iron have come into the possession of the rebels. Han deserters also seek refuge and serve as their advisers and their weapons are sharper and their horses are faster than those of the Xiong-nu. But in so doing they are bent on gaining precious Chinese goods. As soon as they all they possibly can, they turn in their tracks to start wreaking damage. Around A. D.155, the northern Xiongnu were crushed and subjugated by the Xianbei and their chief, known by the Chinese as Tan-shih-huai, then advanced upon and defeated the Wusun of the Ili by A. D.166
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First Sino-Japanese War
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The First Sino-Japanese War was fought between the Qing Empire of China and the Empire of Japan, primarily over influence of Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the Chinese port of Weihaiwei, the Qing government sued for peace in February 1895. The war demonstrated the failure of the Qing Empires attempts to modernize its military and fend off threats to its sovereignty, especially when compared with Japans successful Meiji Restoration. For the first time, regional dominance in East Asia shifted from China to Japan, the humiliating loss of Korea as a tributary state sparked an unprecedented public outcry. Within China, the defeat was a catalyst for a series of political upheavals led by Sun Yat-sen and Kang Youwei, the war is commonly known in China as the War of Jiawu, referring to the year as named under the traditional sexagenary system of years. In Japan, it is called the Japan–Qing War, in Korea, where much of the war took place, it is called the Qing–Japan War. After two centuries, the Japanese policy of seclusion under the shoguns of the Edo period came to an end when the country was forced open to trade by British and American intervention in 1854. The years following the Meiji Restoration of 1868 and the fall of the Shogunate had seen Japan transform itself from a society into a modern industrial state. The Japanese had sent delegations and students around the world to learn and assimilate Western arts and sciences, Korea continued to try to exclude foreigners, refusing embassies from foreign countries and firing on ships near its shores. At the start of the war, Japan had the benefit of three decades of reform, leaving Korea outdated and vulnerable, as a newly risen power, Japan turned its attention toward its neighbor, Korea. Japan wanted to block any other power from annexing or dominating Korea, as Prussian advisor Major Klemens Meckel put it to the Japanese, Korea was a dagger pointed at the heart of Japan. On February 27,1876, after confrontations between Korean isolationists and Japanese, Japan imposed the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876, forcing Korea open to Japanese trade. Similar treaties were signed between Korea and other nations, Korea had traditionally been a tributary state of Chinas Qing Empire, which exerted large influence over the conservative Korean officials who gathered around the royal family of the Joseon kingdom. Opinion in Korea itself was split, conservatives wanted to retain the traditional relationship under China, while reformists wanted to approach Japan and Western nations. After fighting two Opium Wars against the British in 1839 and 1856, and another war against the French in 1885, Japan saw the opportunity to take Chinas place in the strategically vital Korea. In 1882, the Korean peninsula experienced a drought which led to food shortages, causing much hardship. Korea was on the verge of bankruptcy, even falling months behind on military pay, on July 23, a military mutiny and riot broke out in Seoul in which troops, assisted by the population, sacked the rice granaries. The next morning, the crowd attacked the palace and barracks
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Colonialism
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Colonialism is the establishment of a colony in one territory by a political power from another territory, and the subsequent maintenance, expansion, and exploitation of that colony. The term is used to describe a set of unequal relationships between the colonial power and the colony and often between the colonists and the indigenous peoples. The European colonial period was the era from the 16th century to the century when several European powers established colonies in Asia, Africa. At first the countries followed a policy of mercantilism, designed to strengthen the economy at the expense of rivals. By the mid-19th century, however, the powerful British Empire gave up mercantilism and trade restrictions and introduced the principle of free trade, collins English Dictionary defines colonialism as the policy and practice of a power in extending control over weaker peoples or areas. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary offers four definitions, including something characteristic of a colony, in the book, Osterhammel asks, How can colonialism be defined independently from colony. He settles on a definition, Colonialism is a relationship between an indigenous majority and a minority of foreign invaders. The fundamental decisions affecting the lives of the people are made. Rejecting cultural compromises with the population, the colonizers are convinced of their own superiority. Historians often distinguish between two overlapping forms of colonialism, Settler colonialism involves large-scale immigration, often motivated by religious, political, exploitation colonialism involves fewer colonists and focuses on access to resources for export, typically to the metropole. Surrogate colonialism involves a settlement project supported by a colonial power, internal colonialism is a notion of uneven structural power between areas of a state. The source of exploitation comes from within the state, as colonialism often played out in pre-populated areas, sociocultural evolution included the formation of various ethnically hybrid populations. In fact, everywhere where colonial powers established a consistent and continued presence, notable examples in Asia include the Anglo-Burmese, Anglo-Indian, Burgher, Eurasian Singaporean, Filipino mestizo, Kristang and Macanese peoples. In the Dutch East Indies the vast majority of Dutch settlers were in fact Eurasians known as Indo-Europeans, the Other, or othering is the process of creating a separate entity to persons or groups who are labelled as different or non-normal due to the repetition of characteristics. Othering is the creation from those who discriminate, to distinguish, label, several scholars in recent decades developed the notion of the other as an epistemological concept in social theory. For example, postcolonial scholars, believed that colonizing powers explained an ‘other’ who were there to dominate, civilize, political geographers explain how colonial/ imperial powers othered places they wanted to dominate to legalize their exploitation of the land. During the rise of colonialism and after, post colonialism, the Western powers perspectives of the East as the other, different and this viewpoint and separation of culture had divided the Eastern and Western culture creating a dominant/ subordinate dynamic, both being the other towards themselves. The word metropole comes from the Greek metropolis —mother city, the word colony comes from the Latin colonia—a place for agriculture
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Taiwan
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Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, is a state in East Asia. Neighbours include China to the west, Japan to the northeast, Taiwan is the most populous state that is not a member of the United Nations, and the one with the largest economy. The island of Taiwan, also known as Formosa, was inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines before the 17th century. After a brief rule by the Kingdom of Tungning, the island was annexed by the Qing dynasty, the Qing ceded Taiwan to Japan in 1895 after the Sino-Japanese War. While Taiwan was under Japanese rule, the Republic of China was established on the mainland in 1912 after the fall of the Qing dynasty, following the Japanese surrender to the Allies in 1945, the ROC took control of Taiwan. However, the resumption of the Chinese Civil War led to the ROCs loss of the mainland to the Communists, and the flight of the ROC government to Taiwan in 1949. As a founding member of the United Nations, the ROC continued to represent China at the United Nations until 1971, in the early 1960s, Taiwan entered a period of rapid economic growth and industrialization, creating a stable industrial economy. In the 1980s and early 1990s, it changed from a one-party military dictatorship dominated by the Kuomintang to a multi-party democracy with universal suffrage, Taiwan is the 22nd-largest economy in the world, and its high-tech industry plays a key role in the global economy. It is ranked highly in terms of freedom of the press, health care, public education, economic freedom, the PRC has consistently claimed sovereignty over Taiwan and asserted the ROC is no longer in legitimate existence. Under its One-China Policy the PRC refused diplomatic relations with any country that recognizes the ROC, the PRC has threatened the use of military force in response to any formal declaration of independence by Taiwan or if PRC leaders decide that peaceful unification is no longer possible. There are various names for the island of Taiwan in use today, the former name Formosa dates from 1542, when Portuguese sailors sighted the main island of Taiwan and named it Ilha Formosa, which means beautiful island. The name Formosa eventually replaced all others in European literature and was in use in English in the early 20th century. This name was adopted into the Chinese vernacular as the name of the sandbar. The modern word Taiwan is derived from this usage, which is seen in forms in Chinese historical records. Use of the current Chinese name was formalized as early as 1684 with the establishment of Taiwan Prefecture, through its rapid development, the entire Formosan mainland eventually became known as Taiwan. The official name of the state is the Republic of China and it was a member of the United Nations representing China until 1971, when it lost its seat to the Peoples Republic of China. Over subsequent decades, the Republic of China has become known as Taiwan. In some contexts, especially ones from the ROC government
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Penghu
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The Penghu or Pescadores Islands are an archipelago of 90 islands and islets in the Taiwan Strait. The largest city is Magong, located on the largest island, covering an area of 141 square kilometers, the archipelago collectively forms Penghu County of Republic of China, and is the second smallest county, after Lienchiang. The traditional English name of the islands, the Pescadores, comes from the Portuguese name Ilhas dos Pescadores, the Modern European Portuguese pronunciation is but, in English, it is typically closer to Classical Portugueses, /ˌpɛskəˈdɔːrɪz/ or /-iz/. The islands have also been called Pehoe, Pescadores was also the name given by the Spanish expedition of Hernando de Grijalva in 1537 to the Micronesian atoll Kapingamarangi. Finds of fine red cord-marked pottery indicate that Penghu was visited by people from southwestern Taiwan around 5,000 years ago, the islands are described in some detail in Wang Dayuans Dao Yi Zhi Lue. In the 15th century, the Ming ordered the evacuation of the islands as part of their maritime ban, when these restrictions were removed in the late 16th century, legal fishing communities were re-established on the islands. These fishermen worshipped at the Mazu Temple that gave Magong its name and themselves gave rise to the Portuguese, the Ming established a military presence in 1603. At this time, the Dutch East India Company was trying to force China to open a port in Fujian to Dutch trade and expel the Portuguese from Macau. In response, the Chinese governor of Fujian demanded that the Dutch withdraw from Penghu to Taiwan, the Dutch continued to raid the Fujian coast between October 1622 and January 1624 to force their demands, but were unsuccessful. In 1624, the new governor of Fujian sent a fleet of 40–50 warships with 5,000 troops to Penghu and expelled the Dutch, who moved to Fort Zeelandia on Taiwan. For a period in the century, Taiwan and the archipelago were ruled by the Koxinga kingdom. The Penghu archipelago was captured by the French in March 1885, in the weeks of the Sino-French War. The Pescadores Campaign was the last campaign of Admiral Amédée Courbet, Courbet was among several French soldiers and sailors who succumbed to cholera during the French occupation of Penghu. He died aboard his flagship Bayard in Makung harbour on 11 June 1885, towards the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, having defeated the Qing in northern China, Japan sought to ensure that it obtained Penghu and Taiwan in the final settlement. In March 1895, the Japanese defeated the Chinese garrison on the islands, Penghu County was then called the Hōko Prefecture by the Japanese government of Taiwan. During World War II, Makō was a base for the Imperial Japanese Navy. On 26 July 1945, the three governments issued the Potsdam Declaration, declaring that the terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out, however, the United States and the United Kingdom regard the aforementioned documents as merely wartime statements of intention with no binding force in law. Following the surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945, Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers Douglas MacArthur issued General Order No,1, which directed Japanese forces to surrender to the Allied Powers and facilitate the occupation of Japanese territories by the Allied Powers
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Treaty of Shimonoseki
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The Treaty of Shimonoseki was a treaty signed at the Shunpanrō hall, Shimonoseki, Japan on April 17,1895, between the Empire of Japan and the Qing Empire, ending the First Sino-Japanese War. The peace conference took place from March 20 to April 17,1895 and this treaty followed and superseded the Sino-Japanese Friendship and Trade Treaty of 1871. Article 4, China agrees to pay to Japan as a war indemnity the sum of 200,000,000 Kuping taels, Article 5, China opens Shashih, Chungking, Soochow and Hangchow to Japan. Moreover, China is to grant Japan most favoured nation status for foreign trade, the treaty ended the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895 as a clear victory for Japan. In this treaty, China recognized the independence of Korea and renounced any claims to that country and it also ceded the Liaodong Peninsula, and the islands of Formosa and Penghu to Japan. This commercial treaty confirmed the opening of ports and rivers to Japanese trade. As a result of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, China recognized the full and complete independence, in the next year Yeongeunmun was demolished leaving its two stone pillars. Qing Chinas indemnity to Japan of 200 million silver kuping taels, after the Triple intervention, they paid another 30 million taels for a total of over 276,000,000 troy ounces silver, worth about $5 billion US Dollars in 2015. Moreover, Mutsu had already noticed its importance in order to expand Japanese military power towards South China and it was also time of imperialism so that Japan wished to follow what the West was doing. Therefore, even though the Qing had lost wars against Britain and France in the 19th century, the Qing Emperor was serious to keep Taiwan under its rule, on 20 March 1895, at Shunpanrō in Shimonoseki in Japan, 1-month-long peace conference had started. At the first half of the conference, Ito and Li talked mainly about an agreement, and during the second half of the conference. Li Hongzhang refused on the grounds that Taiwan had never been a battlefield during the first Sino-Japanese War between 1894 and 1895, as Taiwan had been a province since 1885, Li stated, Taiwan is already a province, and therefore not to be given away. However, Imperial Japan was too strong for the Qing Dynasty to cope with, on 17 April 1895, the peace treaty between Imperial Japan and the Qing Dynasty had been signed and was followed by the successful Japanese invasion of Taiwan. This had a impact on Taiwan, the turning over of the island to Imperial Japan marking the end of 200 years of Qing rule despite an attempt by Qing loyalists to prevent the annexation. The treaty was drafted with John W. Foster, former American Secretary of State and it was signed by Count Itō Hirobumi and Viscount Mutsu Munemitsu for the Emperor of Japan and Li Hongzhang and Li Jingfang on behalf of the Emperor of China. Before the treaty was signed, Li Hongzhang was attacked by a right-wing Japanese extremist on March 24, he was fired at, the public outcry aroused by the assassination attempt caused the Japanese to temper their demands and agree to a temporary armistice. The conference was adjourned and resumed on April 10. They demanded that Japan withdraw its claim on the Liaodong peninsula, concerned that Lüshun, then called Port Arthur by Westerners, would fall under Japanese control
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Triple Intervention
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The Japanese reaction against the Triple Intervention was one of the underlying causes of the subsequent Russo-Japanese War. Per the terms of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, Japan was awarded the Liaodong Peninsula including the city of Port Arthur. Russia persuaded France and Germany to apply pressure on Japan for return of the territory to China in exchange for a larger indemnity. Russia had the most to gain out of the Triple Intervention, in the preceding years, Russia had been slowly increasing its influence in the Far East. The construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway and the acquisition of a port would enable Russia to consolidate its presence in the region and further expand into Asia. Russia had not expected that Japan would be victorious against China, Port Arthur falling into Japanese hands would undermine its own desperate need for a warm-water port in the East. France was obligated to join Russia under the 1892 treaty, although French bankers did have financial interests in Russia, France had no territorial ambitions in Manchuria, since its sphere of influence was in southern China. However, France did not wish to be isolated, as it had been previously, especially given the growing power of Germany. The three powers had 38 warships with a displacement of 95,000 tons already deployed in East Asia, the last Japanese troops departed in December. Much to Japans astonishment and consternation, Russia moved almost immediately to occupy the entire Liaodong Peninsula, Japans government felt it had been cheated of its deserved spoils of war by this intervention. This humiliation at the hands of the European powers helped lead to the Gashin Shōtan movement, for modern Japan, this ideology meant an increase in heavy industry and strength of the armed forces, especially the navy, at the expense of individual wants and needs. The Triple Intervention had an effect on Japanese foreign relations. It led directly to the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902 which was intended to shield Japan from interference from other European Great Powers. The war of the sun and tumbling bear, A military history of the Russo-Japanese War 1904-5. Tokyo, Kajima Institute of International Peace, historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War
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Russo-Japanese War
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The Russo-Japanese War was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and Korea. The major theatres of operations were the Liaodong Peninsula and Mukden in Southern Manchuria and the seas around Korea, Japan, Russia sought a warm-water port on the Pacific Ocean for their navy and for maritime trade. Vladivostok was operational only during the summer, whereas Port Arthur, since the end of the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, Japan feared Russian encroachment on its sphere of influence. Russia had demonstrated an expansionist policy in the Siberian Far East from the reign of Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century, through threat of Russian expansion, Japan offered to recognize Russian dominance in Manchuria in exchange for recognition of Korea as being within the Japanese sphere of influence. Russia refused and demanded Korea north of the 39th parallel to be a buffer zone between Russia and Japan. The Japanese government perceived a Russian threat to its strategic interests, after negotiations broke down in 1904, the Japanese Navy opened hostilities by attacking the Russian Eastern Fleet at Port Arthur, China, in a surprise attack. The war concluded with the Treaty of Portsmouth, mediated by US President Theodore Roosevelt, the complete victory of the Japanese military surprised world observers. The consequences transformed the balance of power in East Asia, resulting in a reassessment of Japans recent entry onto the world stage and it was the first major military victory in the modern era of an Asian power over a European one. Scholars continue to debate the historical significance of the war, after the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the Meiji government endeavored to assimilate Western ideas, technological advances and ways of warfare. By the late 19th century, Japan had transformed itself into an industrial state. The Japanese wanted to be recognized as equal with the Western powers, the Meiji restoration had always been intended to make Japan a modernized state, not a Westernized one, and Japan was always an imperialist power, looking towards overseas expansionism. By the 1890s it had extended its realm across Central Asia to Afghanistan, the Russian Empire stretched from Poland in the west to the Kamchatka Peninsula in the east. With its construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway to the port of Vladivostok, in the Tsushima incident of 1861 Russia had directly assaulted Japanese territory. Between the Meiji Restoration and its participation in World War I, the first war Japan fought was the First Sino-Japanese War, fought in 1894 and 1895. The war revolved around the issue of control and influence over Korea under the rule of the Joseon dynasty, from the 1880s onward, there had been vigorous competition for influence in Korea between China and Japan. The Korean court was prone to factionalism, and was divided by a reformist faction that was pro-Japanese. In 1884, a coup attempt was put down by Chinese troops. A peasant rebellion led by the Tonghak religious movement led to a request by the Korean government for the Qing dynasty to send in troops to stabilize the country
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Treaty of Portsmouth
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The Treaty of Portsmouth formally ended the 1904–05 Russo-Japanese War. It was signed on September 5,1905 after negotiations lasting from August 6 to August 30, at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, U. S. President Theodore Roosevelt was instrumental in the negotiations, and won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. The war was unpopular with the Russian public, and the Russian government was under increasing threat of revolution at home. On the other hand, the Japanese economy was severely strained by the war, with rapidly mounting foreign debts, No Russian territory had been seized, and the Russians continued to build up reinforcements via the Trans-Siberian Railway. The intermediary approached by the Japanese side was the United States President Theodore Roosevelt, however, as the war progressed, Roosevelt had begun to show concerns on the strengthening military power of Japan and its impact on long-term United States interests in Asia. In February 1905, Roosevelt sent messages to the Russian government via the US ambassador to St Petersburg, initially, the Russians were unresponsive, with Tsar Nicholas II still adamant that Russia would prove victorious in time. At this point, the Japanese government was also lukewarm to a peace treaty, on March 8,1905, Japanese Army Minister Terauchi Masatake met with the American minister to Japan, Lloyd Griscom, to convey word to Roosevelt that Japan was ready to negotiate. However, from the Russian side, a positive response did not come until after the loss of the Russian fleet at the Battle of Tsushima, two days after the battle, Tsar Nicholas II met with his grand dukes and military leadership and agreed to discuss peace. On June 7,1905, Roosevelt met with Kaneko Kentarō, a Japanese diplomat, Roosevelt chose Portsmouth, New Hampshire, as the site for the negotiations, primarily due to its climate being cooler than that of Washington, D. C. The Japanese delegation to the Portsmouth Peace Conference was led by Foreign Minister Komura Jutarō, the Russian delegation was led by former Finance Minister Sergei Witte, assisted by former ambassador to Japan Roman Rosen and international law and arbitration specialist Friedrich Martens. The negotiations took place at the General Stores Building, mahogany furniture patterned after the Cabinet Room of the White House was ordered from Washington. The Japanese initially demanded recognition of their interests in Korea, the removal of all Russian forces from Manchuria and they also wanted confirmation of their control of Sakhalin, which Japanese forces had seized in July 1905, partly for use as a bargaining chip in the negotiations. A total of twelve sessions were held between August 9 and August 30, during the first eight sessions, the delegates were able to reach an agreement on eight points. These included an immediate fire, recognition of Japans claims to Korea. Russia was also required to return its leases in southern Manchuria to China, Russia was allowed to retain the Chinese Eastern Railway in northern Manchuria. The remaining four sessions addressed the most difficult issues, those of reparations, on August 18, Roosevelt proposed that Rosen offer to divide the island of Sakhalin to address the territory issue. On August 23, however, Witte proposed that the Japanese keep Sakhalin, when Komura rejected this proposal, Witte warned that he was instructed to cease negotiations and that the war would resume. This ultimatum came as four new Russian divisions arrived in Manchuria, outmaneuvered by Witte, Komura yielded, and in exchange for the southern half of Sakhalin the Japanese dropped their claims for reparations
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Kwantung Leased Territory
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The Kwantung Leased Territory was a territory in the southern part of the Liaodong Peninsula in the Republic of China that existed from 1898 to 1945. It was one of the territorial concessions that the Qing Dynasty was compelled to award to foreign countries at the end of the 19th century. The territory included the militarily and economically significant ports of Lüshunkou, the name Kwantung, or Guāndōng in pinyin, means east of Shanhai Pass, a reference to part of Qinhuangdao in todays Hebei province, at the eastern end of the Great Wall of China. The name originally referred to all of Manchuria but later came to be used more narrowly for the area of the leased territory, in Japanese it is pronounced Kantō and it is often referred to a s Kantō-shū to avoid confusion with the Kantō region surrounding the capital Tokyo. In Qing dynasty China, the Liaodong Peninsula was administratively part of Liaoning Province, in 1882, the Beiyang Fleet established a naval base and coaling station at Lüshunkou near the southern end of the peninsula. However, within weeks, Germany, France and Russia pressured Japan to cede the territory back to China, in what was called the Triple Intervention. In December 1897, Russian naval vessels entered Lüshunkou harbor, which began to use as a forward base of operations for patrols off of northern China, Korea. The Russian Empire renamed the harbor Port Arthur, in March 1898 Russia formally leased the region for 25 years from China. The peninsula north of the lease was made a territory in which China agreed not to offer concessions to other countries. In 1899, Russia founded the town of Dalniy, just north of the base at Port Arthur. This would later become the city of Dalian, in 1898 Russia began building a railroad north from Port Arthur to link Dalniy with the Chinese Eastern Railway at Harbin, this spur line was the South Manchurian Railway. Under the Portsmouth Treaty resulting from the Russo-Japanese War, Japan replaced Russia as leaseholder, Port Arthur was renamed Ryojun, and Dalniy was renamed Dairen. Japan also obtained extraterritorial rights in the north of the territory adjacent to the 885 kilometres South Manchurian Railway in 1905. These rights, along with the railway and several lines were passed to the corporation known as the South Manchurian Railway Company. Japan established the Kwantung Governor-general to administer the new territory, and based the Kwantung Garrison to defend it, the Kwantung Garrison later became the Kwantung Army, which played an instrumental role in the founding of Manchukuo. In negotiations with the Republic of China under the Twenty-One Demands, after the foundation of Japanese-controlled Manchukuo in 1932, Japan regarded the sovereignty of the leased territory as transferred from China to Manchukuo. A new lease agreement was contracted between Japan and the government of Manchukuo, and Japan transferred the South Manchurian Railway Zone to Manchukuo. However, Japan retained the Kwantung Leased Territory as a territory apart from the nominally-independent Manchukuo until its surrender at the end of World War II in 1945, after World War II, the Soviet Union occupied the territory and the Soviet Navy made use of the Ryojun Naval Base
